Spills

The northbound lanes of the 710 Freeway were closed in Bell Gardens on Monday night after a truck carrying liquid asphalt collided with several cars. There were no immediate reports of injuries in the crash, which occurred about 8:30 p.m. CBS-TV Channel 2 reported that the truck dumped 1,500 gallons of liquid asphalt onto the roadway and that it would take some time to clean it up. It's unclear when the freeway will reopen.

In its latest contribution to historical anthropology, genetic sequencing has shown that a lavishly decorated gourd said to contain the blood of the French King Louis XVI does not, very likely, bear the DNA of France's final monarch. Helas! Can no one -- not even the ancient purveyors of gruesome relics, amulets and royal remains -- be trusted? Apparently not, as historians, aided by the burgeoning science of genetic analysis, are learning. Louis XVI's death, after an 18-year reign and a fateful flight from French revolutionaries, came by guillotine on Jan. 21, 1793, and brought an end to more than 1,000 years of French monarchy.

A brutal sell-off overseas spilled into U.S. markets Monday morning, pushing the major averages down more than 1%. Growing political concerns in Europe and disappointing economic data across the continent fed worries that a cure for Europe's sovereign debt crisis, which seemed to be underway only weeks ago, could be in jeopardy amid weakening growth prospects and popular revolt among wide swaths of the European citizenry. Investors were rattled by data showing manufacturing contracting.

BP, the petroleum giant, has more than doubled its estimate of how much crude oil it spilled this week into Lake Michigan, a source of drinking water for some 7 million people in Chicago and its suburbs. On Monday, BP reported the spill into the lake from its Whiting refinery in northwest Indiana. The U.S. Coast Guard and the federal Environmental Protection Agency have been at the site and have been involved in the cleanup. “Any time you get any type of chemical in land or water, no one wants to see it,” Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Alan Haraf, a spokesman, told the Los Angeles Times.

The Nobel Prize. The Lasker Prize. The Fields Medal. The MacArthur Fellowships (a.k.a. “the genius grants”). The Kavli Prize. The Ig Nobels. Among the various awards given for scientific achievement, the Ig Nobels may not be the most coveted - but they're certainly the most fun. The winners are selected by the Annals of Improbable Research to recognize breakthroughs that first make you laugh, then make you think. “The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative - and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology,” according to the organization's website . The 2012 Ig Nobels Prizes were handed out Thursday night at Harvard University, a place that knows a thing or two about academic achievement.

If Ray Davies and Peter Allen had a baby, he might have grown up to be Morrissey, the frail young thing who leads the English group the Smiths in their crusade for individuality. Flitting, swooning, prancing and grimacing all over the Universal Amphitheatre stage Monday night, Morrissey spilled his soul and the fans ate it up. Life is tough for a sensitive specimen like Morrissey, and his melancholy expressions of estrangement make him a hero to his adherents.

A janitor who worked at the Little America Westgate Hotel has filed a $50-million lawsuit against the hotel and several of its officers claiming he was contaminated with toxic PCBs. According to the complaint filed last week in Superior Court, George Guerin, 30, was contaminated over a three-year period when he was ordered to clean up PCB leaks from a faulty electric transformer with mops, rags, solvent and cat litter. Richard W.

The Los Angeles City Council moved Tuesday to make those responsible for hazardous waste spills pay for the cost of cleanup. The council unanimously directed the city attorney's office to prepare a fee schedule for billing those who cause toxic spills. The council also instructed the staff to set up a mechanism for placing a lien on the property of those who fail to pay. The fee schedule and an enabling ordinance must be approved by the council and mayor before they go into effect.

A Union Pacific train carrying industrial materials derailed early Saturday morning, spilling two carloads of soda ash, officials said. There were no injuries, and the ash was not hazardous, they said. Eight cars in the middle of an 80-car train ran off the track in a residential area just north of West Rialto Avenue about 1:30 a.m., Union Pacific spokeswoman Zoe Richmond said. The cause of the crash was under investigation. The ash is used in detergent. The train was also carrying cement, Richmond said.

Less than a week after an oil spill in the Houston Ship Channel, environmentalists say there has been limited damage to nearby bird sanctuaries, but it is to soon to know whether there will be long-term problems to wildlife. More than 200 birds have been fouled by oil from the spill, caused by a collision involving a fuel barge and a ship on Saturday, according to Richard Gibbons, conservation director of Houston Audubon. The birds are of a variety of species. “It's a terrible event,” Gibbons told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.

March 24, 2014 | By A Times Staff Writer, This post had been corrected. See note below for details.

Without any help from Winnie-the-Pooh, Caltrans is making quick work of a honey spill on the 605 Freeway. The California Highway Patrol reported that a truck carrying 42,000 pounds of honey overturned on the 605 Freeway near Valley Boulevard on Monday afternoon. TV footage shows a pool of honey flowing from the truck onto the shoulder of the freeway. Crews, however, made quick work of the honey. Originally, four lanes on the Northbound 605 were closed. But the CHP said three lanes have been reopened.

March 24, 2014 | By Michael Muskal, This post has been updated, as indicated below.

Authorities in Texas were hoping to partially reopen the busy Houston Ship Channel on Monday, officials said, after a significant oil spill over the weekend that is harming wildlife and the local economy. [Updated, 5:35 p.m. March 24: The shipping channel remained closed Monday night. ] U.S. Coast Guard officials said 168,000 gallons of oil spilled from a barge after a collision with a Liberian-flagged ship in Galveston Bay about 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, threatening birds at a nearby wildlife sanctuary.

Crews worked Tuesday to fix a fingertip-sized hole in an underground pipe that allowed about 1,200 gallons of crude oil to seep onto a quiet residential street in Wilmington. Phillips 66, which earlier in the day said it was almost positive that it was not to blame for the leak, later took responsibility and put the blame on one of its out-of-service pipes. Don Ellis, a hazardous-materials specialist with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said that when an underground oil pipeline is withdrawn from use, it is supposed to be capped and the material inside vacuumed out. Janet Grothe, a spokeswoman for Phillips 66, said the company would investigate why oil remained in the pipe, which she said was taken out of service before Phillips 66 acquired it. Los Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino, who was touring the area, said the pipe had been withdrawn from service in 1998.

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency and BP announced Thursday an agreement that would allow the energy giant to bid once again on deep-water offshore drilling leases, reversing a government decision two years ago to bar the company from federal contracts following its massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In what became the country's worst offshore environmental disaster, BP's Macondo well blew out in April 2010, killing 11 workers and spewing more than 4 million barrels of oil into the gulf.

In years past, the predawn bike race on the L.A. Marathon route just hours before the start of the foot race allowed cyclists an exhilarating dash across town, from Silver Lake to Santa Monica, on 26 miles of dark and empty streets. The Marathon Crash Race, as it was called, was a rare opportunity for bicyclists to commandeer the usually traffic-snarled streets of the city. It was also potentially perilous; city officials were not terribly happy to have cyclists - some of whom would finish the course in about 50 minutes - speeding down streets that had not yet been completely closed off to traffic.

A holding tank broke at a Caterpillar facility in Joliet, spilling about 65,000 gallons of oil sludge and contaminating a three-mile section of the Des Plaines River, officials said. The substance was reported to be hydraulic and cutting oil, said Maggie Carson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. "It is being contained, and there is no evidence of a fish kill or harm to waterfowl," Carson said in an e-mail. Most of the sludge spilled on land, but 6,000 gallons seeped into Des Plaines River water, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer William Mitchell said.

The operator of a Newhall power plant was fined $10,000 Tuesday for failing to contact authorities in September after several hundred pounds of corrosive lime accidentally spilled out a silo and onto private property near three houses. The company, AES Placerita, pleaded no contest in Newhall Municipal Court to one misdemeanor count of failing to report a hazardous materials spill. The company could have been fined up to $25,000, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. William W. Carter said.

The final shoe has yet to drop for "Sex and the City's" Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda, according to the franchise's star, Sarah Jessica Parker. But that doesn't necessarily mean a third "Sex and the City" film based on the HBO comedy is already being cobbled together. In an appearance Wednesday appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," the 48-year-old actress confronted the notion of another iteration of the sartorially charged series about the sexual exploits and relationships of four well-heeled New York women.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - After weeks of downplaying a massive coal ash spill, North Carolina regulators issued violation notices Monday to five more Duke Energy power plants, in addition to two citations late last week at the site that polluted the Dan River a month ago. Also Monday, the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources described the Feb. 2 spill as an “environmental disaster.” The latest five citations focused on Duke...